Should Have Known?

The average American may wonder, after the failure of the immigration bill in the United States Senate last week, how such a gigantic blunder is possible. We look at our own lives, at our jobs, our families, and say: How is it possible to get anything so screwed up?Surely President Bush and the Republicans senators who worked with Senator Kennedy to craft the deal should have known that it would blow up in their faces. Surely they should have known that the Republican base was heavily invested in securing the border before amnestying the illegals.But let us be careful of this "should have known" approach to political analysis. Here is the judgment of a best-selling author on what we "should have known" about the great issues of our time."[We] as Americans should have "known then what we know now"--not only about the invasion of Iraq but also about the climate crisis, and what would happen if the levees failed to protect New Orleans...(Read Full Article)